Vivit recognizes the extraordinary efforts of our members to participate and lead local and virtual events. These leaders give their time, expertise, and support to share with others through advocacy, community, education and career development. Many of these volunteers don’t necessarily have the time, but they have the heart. Our volunteers and leaders are the backbone of our organization.

Vivit has been fortunate to have industry experts from all over the world choose to be members and as of this year, 141 members chose to be leaders. Each year, Vivit asks its membership to nominate exceptional leaders to be recognized for their efforts, and it is Vivit’s honor to select from those nominees Leader of the Year, Speaker of the Year and Champion of the year.

In congratulating this year’s EMEA/Asia-Pacific region nominees, I’d like to leave you with this thought: "Volunteers are not paid because they are worthless, but because they are priceless!” Congratulations on your success this year, on your nomination and thank you for your efforts and contributions.

Mostafa MoussaviTechnical TesterSEB SwedenSweden Chapter LeaderNominated for Leader of the Year

Jan CzajkowskiQC Specialist ManagerSQS SwedenSweden Chapter LeaderNominated for Leader of the Year

Mark LairdIMSL Group Technical ArchitectSteria GroupBSM SIG LeaderNominated for Leader of the Year and Speaker of the Year

René de VleeschauwerManaging DirectorIKANBelgium Chapter LeaderNominated for Champion of the Year

Andreas BirkFounder and Principal ConsultantSoftware.Process.ManagementTesting, Quality, and ALM SIG LeaderNominated for Champion of the Year

The Leader of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding local chapter or SIG leadership. The Champion of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding effort to advance and grow the Vivit community. The Speaker of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding presentations to the Vivit community. And on behalf of the community, we would like to thank you for your contributions. Keep up the terrific dedication in which you serve the community.

The award winners will be revealed and celebrated at the Vivit Leader Dinner at HP Discover on Monday evening, December 9th, in Barcelona, Spain at:

There are many career-building and growth opportunities within Vivit. The nominated Vivit Leaders below are real live evidence of those who were appreciated by peers for their time, energy, and commitment to make relationships and community events succeed—a proof of growth.

But what does it mean to grow one's career? It often sounds empty, cumbersome, and time consuming. Well we all know that the success of a team or organization always succeeds the growth of people. At least I hope so.

And yes this is a journey of learning. And how do you learn? It does make me think of high school learning programs on dull topics I was not always interested in. Well the learning styles of Kolb show us: experience it, reflect on it, think about and act on it. Or pick your own personal learning style at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles. Bottom line: start experimenting.

These nominees started to invest in this process some time ago. Asking and discussing feedback on hosting their sessions, organizational skills, or presentations. So what I really want to thank this year’s nominees for is showing us what it's all about: growing and learning professionally by experiencing it!

I think this is a great example for us. But keep in mind, "what needs to be instantly perfect, does not get the opportunity to grow.” And that’s just what they pragmatically did.

Todd DecapuaChapter/SIG LeaderLeader, Champion, andSpeaker of the Year

David BroermanFlorida Chapter LeaderLeader and Championof the Year

Chuck MastersMid Atlantic Chapter LeaderLeader of the Year

Bernard SzymczakOhio Chapter and TQA SIG LeaderLeader of the Year

Rocky PistoChapter LeaderLeader, Champion, andSpeaker of the Year

Mary Kay PetersenHP SM SIG and OregonChapter LeaderLeader and Championof the Year

Scott AndersonIowa Chapter LeaderLeader and Speakerof the Year

Steven KissToronto Chapter LeaderChampion of the Year

Wendy WheelerNetwork Management SIG ChampionChampion of the Year

Chuck FugeeHouston Chapter LeaderChampion of the Year

Bob CrewsFlorida Chapter LeaderChampion of the Year

Mark HerbertArizona Chapter LeaderSpeaker of the Year

Donna McJunkinIT Project Manager3MSpeaker of the Year

Swamy MandavilliFunctional ArchitectHPSpeaker of the Year

Laura Walker, Todd DeCapua, and Rocky Pisto have won the awards they were nominated for again this year, so they are not eligible to receive the award a second time. However, we want to thank and recognize them for their contributions.

Vivit presented the 2012 EMEA Awards in Frankfurt,
Germany on December 3, 2012. The Leader of the Year Award recipient is
Olli Laiho, Leader of the global Testing, Quality, and ALM Special Interest Group (from Finland), the Champion of the Year Award recipient is Stefan
Mohr, Leader of the Germany Chapter, and the Speaker of the Year Award recipient is Mihai
Grigorescu, Leader of the South Africa Chapter. All three were nominated by fellow members for their outstanding contributions. Congratulations!!!

I am not aware of many programs or career paths in
which you are awarded during the journey. Active leadership within the Vivit community
will provide you with such an opportunity. Moreover, it boosts your skills in organizing
and hosting events and networking, and it boosts your career by carving the way
you look for and follow trends and by providing a unique stage that creates
visibility for you, your skills and your organization. And sometimes it just
drives you into other realms like developing your killer presentation
skills.

Over 120 amazing members from around the world have already
started this journey with Vivit as leaders of local chapters and worldwide Special Interest Groups (SIGs), speakers, or directors. As it is time for our annual
EMEA awards, I am pleased to put the spotlight on a few of our members who have
been nominated by fellow members for their outstanding skills and
contributions.

Andreas BirkFounder and Principal ConsultantSoftware.Process.ManagementTesting, Quality, and ALM SIG LeaderNominated for Champion of the Year

Jan CzajkowskiQC Specialist ManagerSQS SwedenSweden Chapter LeaderNominated for Champion of the Year

Cheikh Sadibou DomeDirectorSOMONEFrance Chapter LeaderNominated for Leader of the Year

Mihai GrigorescuTCoE Tools LeadAccentureSouth Africa ChapterNominated for Champion and Speaker of the Year

David JenkinsSAP QA Test ManagerDael Computer Services IncTRIM SIG MemberNominated forLeader and Speaker of the Year

Nils JohannessenSolutions ArchitectRubik Solutions ASNorway Chapter LeaderNominated forLeader and Champion of the Year

Martina KoehlerIT OrganizerAxel Springer AGGermanyNominated for Speaker of the Year

Olli LaihoSenior QA ConsultantAssureTesting, Quality, ALM SIG LeaderNominated for Leader of the Year

Stefan MohrManager ConsultingITC GmbH Germany Chapter LeaderNominated for Leader, Champion, and Speaker of the Year

No Picture Available

Ola PermanTest ManagerTietoSweden Chapter LeaderNominated for Speaker of the Year

Johan SodergrenSystem EngineerICA AD SwedenNominated for Speaker of the Year

Sami SuroUnit ManagerTietoFinland Chapter LeaderNominated for Speaker of the Year

The Leader of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding local chapter or SIG leadership. The Champion of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding effort to advance and grow the Vivit community. The new Speaker of the Year award is presented to an individual for outstanding presentations to the Vivit community. The comments and nominations were extensive this year. Congratulations on your nomination! And on behalf of the community, I would like to thank you for your contributions. Keep up the terrific dedication in which you serve the community.

The award winners will be revealed and celebrated at the Vivit Leader Dinner at HP Discover on Monday evening, December 3rd, in Frankfurt, Germany.

How can YOU boost your career and earn some credits? Vivit is always looking for dedicated volunteer leaders and co-leaders to help support chapter and SIG activities as well as drive new initiatives. Motivated individuals who would like to be considered, click here for a list of volunteer opportunities and the application form.

Paolo Cattolico, who lives in France, founded and initiated the Vivit Information Management TRIM Chapters in UK, Ireland, Netherlands. Those chapters are e new incarnation of the former TRIM user groups, inherited from a company acquisition, and have now happily joined the Vivit community to extend their share of knowledge and welcome new members. Some Kickoff meetings, face to face, have been organized in UK, and recruitment for further member countries, such as Italy or South Africa, in now planned.

Paolo has been working in the IT industry for over 20 years, for companies such as NCR, Digital, Compaq and HP. He is currently responsible for Information Management marketing in HP EMEA. Paolo holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Milan, and one in clarinet from the Milan Conservatory of Music.

Olli LaihoLeader of the Year EMEA Nominee

Olli works as Senior QA Consultant for Assure in Finland. He specializes in HP ALM and HP Quality Center. He serves the HP Software community as a leader for the worldwide TQA Special Interest group of Vivit.

Stefan Mohr is the Consulting Manager and a Principal Consultant for the ITC GmbH in Germany. Stefan has more than 14 years' experience in implementing, customizing, training and selling of HP Software products and ITSM Consulting. As a certified ITIL Service Manager, he focuses on integrated ITSM solutions for enterprise and SMB customers based on HP Software and 3rd party products. Stefan has been a Vivit member and Local Chapter Leader for three years and has helped to organize the German user Group Meetings for more than six years.

Frank RosenfelderChampion of the Year EMEA Nominee &Leader of the Year EMEA Nominee(Not eligible - 2009 Award Winner)

Frank Rosenfelder has 15 years of experience with HP software and knows the products both from a user and vendor perspective. He currently works for IT unlimited AG, a Platinum HP business partner focused on implementing, supporting and operating IT management solutions. Prior to this assignment, he held several leadership positions in product management, business development and marketing at HP's OpenView business unit.

With the majority of his professional life being focused around HP Software, Frank is excited about the opportunity to serve the user community as a chapter leader. He has organized the German user conferences for the past 5 years, led the integration of users from other parts of the expanded software portfolio and strives to continually enhance the value, which the local chapter brings to its members.

Martijn StuiverLeader of the Year EMEA Nominee

This year's key focus within Vivit:

1. Organize the global virtual events of the HP Service Management SIG;

2. Host Roundtable discussions at HP Discover in Vegas and Vienna;

2. Cooperate with HP at the Customer Forum of the EMEAs in Paris and Berlin. Including hosting two lively roundtable sessions;

3. Cooperate with the Vivit Germany Chapter at their event near Frankfurt;

4. Establish contact among European Chapter leaders;

5. Establish a local HP Service Management Chapter in the Netherlands with Vivit and the local user group Interexperience.

Role at Westbury: Martijn is the Chief Operations Officer at Westbury and is responsible for the alignment of Strategy and Operations. Furthermore, he is a project management professional, servicing worldwide SMI implementation projects. These projects enable HP Service Management end-users to conduct operational ITSM reporting, thereby unlocking significant process improvements.

Martijn has worked in the field of service management tool implementations for 10 years now, and holds a BA in Marketing and a Masters in Science with a minor in Organization Anthropology. Martijn is interested in and enthusiastic about driving initiatives around execution, organizational change, social media and performance management.

The award winners will be announced and recognized at HP DISCOVER Vienna, 29 Nov – 1 Dec 2011.

Vivit is pleased to announce Laura Walker as the 2011 Leader of the Year for the Americas region.

Each year, members nominate Local Chapter and worldwide Special Interest Group Leaders who are volunteers from the Americas and EMEA region for the award. The Americas title is awarded in June; the EMEA title is awarded in December. Laura Walker was one of eleven nominees from the Amercias region. She shares her talents and strong leadership as a Local Chapter Leader in Chicago, Kansas City, Texas, and Richmond, Virginia. She has formed strong local communities centered on IT Service Management, and she also helps to organize and lead IT Service Management events for other Local Chapters around the United States as well as the worldwide HP Service Management Special Interest Group.

Laura was presented with the award on June 7, during the Triple Crown community appreciation event at the HP DISCOVER conference in Las Vegas, NV. The Vivit board thanks Laura for her ongoing efforts to help build the community that now spans over 6000 members worldwide and 55 chapters and special interest groups in 18 different countries.

Laura Walker is the Director of Business for StrataCom, an HP Gold Partner specializing in IT Service Management, and has been employed in the IT Service Management industry for 10 years. Laura holds a B.S. in International Business and an MBA degree. She is an active industry volunteer within the IT industry.

Laura is also the itSMF Dakota President. She has served on Dakota and Minnesota itSMF extended boards and on a variety of committees including programs and membership. She loves working in information technology because of the continuous change.

We are pleased to announce the 2011 nominees for the Americas Leader of the Year Award. Vivit is positively bursting with activity, due to the efforts of all volunteers. These twelve nominees for Americas Leader of the Year Award exemplify the best of what all of us strive to be. Each of these individuals has special talents and strengths and has stepped forward to share them with this worldwide community.

As a whole, they all exemplify the best of leadership qualities: honesty, forward-looking, competence, inspiration and intelligence. As strong leaders, the willingness to share and be courageous in the face of persistent challenges and obstacles is the reason that members of their Chapters and SIGs nominated them for this award. From the voices of Vivit members, they are being recognized for their ability to shape the future of many, as a community and as individuals, through their leadership abilities.

The special magic of Vivit comes from the essence of what makes us human—the need for connection. These leaders understand that special magic and work to create a thriving community where member voices can be heard and knowledge-sharing and collaboration are welcomed. While diversity of thought can prompt barriers, these leaders have mastered the art of listening, and they guide our members to open dialog and open connection so that at the end of the day, personal growth and expertise can develop.

The Vivit Board of Directors thanks each one of these nominees for their ongoing efforts to help build a community of people that spans 14 countries, 53 Chapters and SIGs, and 5800 worldwide members. These individuals are growing to be outstanding leaders of the future: for this community, for their organizations, for their families and for their friends. Through the Americas Leader of the Year Award, Vivit expresses our gratitude and recognizes the contributions of these twelve nominees for their excellence

We would like to recognize Chris Scharer from the Iowa and Nebraska Chapters and TQA SIG of Vivit. As a Vivit board member, he is not eligible for the 2011 award, but his work as a leader is still very much appreciated and acknowledged by many members.

The 2011 award recipient will be announced at HP DISCOVER in Las Vegas, June 6 - 10. We will also announce the recipient in the July issue of the InForum News. Stay tuned.